Saturday, September 08, 2007

I've been invited to be part of a mentoring panel at a Pathways Into Health conference being held in Chicago this Friday. This is a unique event focused on the ways distance learning, on-site education and cultural integration can support the positive youth development of American Indians and Alaska Natives.

I'm involved because the challenges of building and sustaining programs that are in all the places they need to be, and that connect youth with a variety of mentors and age-appropriate learning opportunities, are the same challenges we face in big cities. The primary differences are geography and population density.

Furthermore, I'm interested in helping health care professionals become more strategically involved in supporting the growth of tutor/mentor programs, as part of their own diversity, workforce development, and poverty reduction strategies. Leading actions that motivate young people to make more healthy decisions can lower the emergency room costs of many inner city hospitals, and in some cases make a difference between staying in business or ceasing operations. Providing mentors and learning experiences that help young people build aspirations for careers in health care, can help meet some of the workforce needs of these same hospitals, lowering their costs of attracting and keeping key employees.

Thus, this is a good place for me to network. I've posted my introduction on my web site. I also have invited others who will be part of this conference to introduce themselves by posting a comment on this blog message. Thus, even if you won't be in Chicago this Friday, you can meet some of the people who will be attending.

5 comments:

Greetings, my friends! I look forward to seeing you at our annual Pathways Into Health Conference this Friday, September 14th in Chicago. I am Dr. Jim Galloway and have been working with Pathways Into Health for over 3 years now. I am quite enthusiastic about the opportunities of partnering with the Tribes and Universities in the Midwest to improve the health, health care and professional health care education for American Indians and Alaksa Natives. Warm regards.

I am Jerry Yutrzenka and have been a member of Pathways into Health since its early days. Currently I am the Director, Office of Minority Affairs/INMED Satellite Office for the Sanford School of Medicine(SSOM) and a Health Professions Advisor at the University of South Dakota. At the upcoming meeting in Chicago I will head up the breakout session on Mentoring. SSOM and other medical schools and Schools of Health Sciences have had a long time interest in working to increase the number of Native American students in the health professions and it has become clearer to meet that we must be more engaged then ever in efforts to effectively work with and mentor students (and their communities) interested in pursuing these careers. This effort certainly relies heavily on the talents and energy of the local health care professionals (who are often spread pretty thin) to work with and guide the interests of the young people. While nothing will totally replace the one-on-one relationship between a mentor and their mentee, I believe that the effective use of distance technology is essential in helping to support and promote these linkages. It allows the ability of other, non-local, entities (hospitals, colleges, others) to participate and have a greater role in this mentoring effort.

Hello Everyone. My name is Karla Abbott or E'cante Waste Win (Lakota for Good Heart Woman). I will be a presenter in a breakout session on mentoring. I firmly believe that Native students are visual learners and thrive on our cultural tradition of story telling. I like to use visual props when I talk to youth about health careers. We need more Natives in health care and we need to support them in HS/college thru mentoring! I firmly believe that in order to be a leader, you have to SEE a leader. Mentoring with our Native youth involved engaged volunteers who don't let the barriers keep those youth from succeeding. I have been a nurse for over 20 years, but almost dropped out of nursing when I had to retake anatomy, and pharmacology too! It was mentors who kept me going! I look forward to our conference!

It was fantastic to meet and share ideas with Gerald, Karla and other participants in the Pathways into Health Conference held yesterday in Chicago. One of the goals the group set was to continue this networking on the Internet.

I've also signed on to contribute ideas at http://www.myhealthcareers.net

I'm hosting a Leadership and Networking Conference in the Chicago area on Nov. 15 and 16 and I hope some of the people who met at Friday's conference will use the T/MC conference as a place to continue their networking and work to create mentoring pipelines to careers. The conference web site is http://www.tutormentorconference.org

If any of you can host workshops, or want to be keynote speakers to help raise the awareness of the costs of poverty and workforce development issues that can be partially addressed by a mentoring leadership strategy, please contact me, or submit a workshop presenter form.

Thanks for inviting me. I look forward to continuing this discussion with each of you.

My aim is to help communities create and sustain strategies that reduce poverty and inequality, using volunteer-based, non-school tutor/mentor programs as part of a strategy to transform opportunities for kids while increasing the number of non-poverty adults who become deeply involved. I'm Daniel Bassill. I have led volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs in Chicago since 1975. Learn more about me at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/dan-bassill.

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About Me

I combine 40 years of unique experiences into my leadership of Cabrini Connections and the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Few people in the US have a similar depth of involvement and experiences.
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